Hops are grown on suspended trellises that generally extend upwardly sixteen to eighteen feet in height and higher, thereby presenting a significant harvesting challenge. When ripe, the hops are commonly cut down and on small or mid-size farm operations may be separated or picked from the bine by hand because there is no suitable hops harvester for a small scale grower. The relatively short picking season, availability of labor and other factors, such as leaves mixed in with the hops, along with bruising and discoloration, has led to the development of a small, portable hops picking machine that can be taken through the fields in which the hops are grown.
Typically, picking of hops involves first severing the hop bines, a fibrous stem that is similar to a vine, from their growing positions on the trellis structure in the field, and then transporting them to a centrally located, stationary harvesting machine or operation, where the hops coves (“fruit”) are picked or separated from the bines. These machines can provide a throughput of up to 200 bines per hour; such is the case with the Wolf or LaGasse harvesters. However, such harvesters are often prohibitively expensive for small and mid-size farms (costs in excess of $40K), where they are only used for limited times during short harvest seasons.
After being cut down and transported, the bines are hooked onto a conveying mechanism and the bine is pulled into the large stationary harvester along a horizontal or vertical path. In more recent years larger hops producers may drive or pull a tall machine down a row of mature hop bines seeking to shake or strip the bines while they remain tied to the trellis. These tall machines have vertical picking fingers that strip the bine of all the foliage, including the hops, which is subsequently singled out within the harvester by a variety of well-known processes, for the most part based on gravitational parsing.
Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in growing hops on a regional or local level as craft and micro-brewers seek regional ingredients with predictable and unique characteristics that make their brews distinctive. Additionally, in the interest of supporting local agriculture, it is known that legislation has been enacted, at least one state (e.g., New York), that requires or encourages at least a portion of the hops used in a micro-brewery be grown and procured locally. Accordingly, the disclosed embodiments address an unmet need for a less expensive and portable hops harvesting implement that would fulfill the requirements of smaller scale, emerging local hops growers having from about one to ten acres of hops.
Disclosed in embodiments herein is a portable horizontal produce picking implement for the removal of hops from a bine, comprising: a generally horizontal bine transport loop or carousel extending through and outwardly from the forward and rearward ends of the implement, said carousel including at least one bine clip; a shroud operatively associated with at least a portion of said bine transport loop; a plurality of picking rakes arranged on rolls forming a picking nip region therebetween for contacting the bine and separating the hops from the bine; a helical bine positioning member biasing the bine toward the center of the picking nip region; at least one inclined separating conveyor belt (e.g., at an angle of about 30 to 45 degrees) positioned below the picking nip region, said separating conveyor belt having a perforated surface and a negative pressure at the upper surface thereof; a debris conveyor in proximity to the upper end of the inclined separating conveyor belt to debris from the upper surface of the separating conveyor belt; a hops conveyor located beneath said inclined conveyor to transport hops on a surface thereof toward the rear of the implement and a collection location; a single blower simultaneously providing negative air pressure to the upper surface of the separating conveyor belt to enable the segregation of the hops from the debris and positive pressure to directed to an end of the hops conveyor to blow and further separate any debris mixed with the hops as the hops falls from the hops conveyor; and a tow bar for connecting the implement to a vehicle for transport; a power take-off connection for transferring mechanical power from the vehicle to the implement, said connection being operatively connected to a transmission to facilitate the distribution of mechanical power to at least the conveyor belts and rolls; at least one hydraulic turbine having hydraulic fluid pressure sourced from said tow vehicle, said hydraulic turbine being operatively associated with at least the bine transport loop or carousel and providing a driving force to a drive sprocket thereon; and at least two wheels 810 associated with said implement for the purpose of transport.
Further disclosed in embodiments herein is a method for the harvesting of hops including: attaching a hop bine to a bine hook or clip; using said bine clip, pulling said bine horizontally into a harvester; removing leaves and hops from said bine; collecting said hops and leaves onto a conveyor; separating said hops from said leaves with gravity and negative air pressure; apply a positive air pressure to eliminate foreign matter from the separated hops; and placing hops into a collection container.
Also disclosed herein is a portable horizontal produce picking implement for the removal of hops from a bine, comprising: a power take-off for transferring mechanical power from a tow vehicle to the picking implement to drive components; a second source of power (e.g., hydraulic) sourced from said tow vehicle for operating at least one component of the implement separate from the power take-off; at least two wheels directly affixed to said implement for the purpose of transport; a series of wire formed picking fingers arranged in rows for separating the hops and leaves from the bine; a continuous horizontal bine carousel loop extending longitudinally from the front and rear ends, and including at least one bine hook for pulling a bine through said rows of picking fingers; a shroud (conveyor belt pieces attached to a roller chain) for preventing the bine from becoming intertwined with said continuous carousel loop; a bine positioning member having helical surfaces thereon for contacting the bine and biasing the bine to pull through a central region of the picking fingers; at least one inclined conveyor having a perforated belt(s) thereon, said conveyor disposed beneath said picking fingers at an angle of about 30 to 45 degrees, said at least one belt having a negative pressure applied from the interior to a top surface thereof to attract stripped leaves and debris; a horizontal hop conveyor situated beneath said at least one inclined conveyor; a horizontal debris conveyor situated in proximity to an end of the last of the at least one inclined conveyor; and a single blower providing both positive and negative air flow to assist in the segregation of the hops from debris.
Further disclosed in embodiments herein is a generally horizontal bine transport carousel for an agricultural implement, comprising: at least two rotating sprockets, at least one sprocket located at each of the opposite ends of the implement; a roller chain spanning between and at least partially in contact with the sprocket peripheries so as to be operatively driven by at least one of the sprockets to which a driving force is applied; and a shroud applied to at least a portion of the transport carousel to prevent fouling of the roller chain by the bine.
The various embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the disclosure to those embodiments described. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the various embodiments and equivalents set forth. For a general understanding, reference is made to the drawings. In the drawings, like references have been used to designate identical or similar elements. It is also noted that the drawings may not have been drawn to scale and that certain regions may have been purposely drawn disproportionately so that the features and aspects could be properly depicted.